D.C.’s new acting chief of police takes over the department at a tumultuous time for the city with a police force facing a range of challenges.
Acting Chief Jeff Carroll has been No. 2 at the Metropolitan Police Department since Pamela Smith became chief in 2023. Last week, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Carroll was her choice for interim chief.
“As I do take over as the interim chief, I want to take a review of all the policies that we have to see if there are things that need to be updated and changed,” Carroll said. “We’re going to continue, as the mayor’s order indicates, to work with our federal partners that are out there, but we are not working with ICE. We are not on teams with ICE that’s out there. We are working with our other federal partners that are out there in the community.”
Residents want to know exactly what the policy is when D.C. police resolve an infraction in the field only to have federal agents on the scene run a person’s information, which MPD shares with them, before placing them in cuffs for detention.
“MPD does not enforce civil enforcement,” Carroll said. “As you indicated, there are some instances where there were MPD members on the scene with other federal agencies and federal agencies took their action that they take.
“MPD members will not be asking anyone about their immigration status, what it may be,” Carroll said. “We want people to be comfortable to interact with MPD while still respecting the authorities, the federal entities that had those authorities have that. There are a couple of instances that you’ve referenced some that are out there and again some of those are under investigation as well.”
But he doesn’t believe the department has any data on such interactions.
“That’s not something that we typically track,” Carroll said. “There are, as you mentioned, a couple of instances that are in the media, but they’re not widespread. So again, MPD is not directly involved in any immigration enforcement, but there are partners that do have that authority that we work with.”
“So, there’s kind of two aspects of it,” he said. “There’s MPD members that are violent crime suppression division, our investigative units that are working with other agents and other law enforcement agencies on the investigative side, and then there’s some proactive teams that are running out of the patrol districts. So, those proactive teams go out daily, and there’s MPD officers and there’s some federal officers that are with them from a variety of agencies. But a majority of officers that — when you call 911 — that respond up, they’re not going to be with federal authorities. The federal authorities aren’t responding, typically, to 911 calls.”
Carroll indicated there haven’t been many incidents of ICE detaining suspects after D.C. police responded to a call.
“The officers that are going out there is not for immigration enforcement,” Carroll said. “They’re responding to other incidents that are going out there, other calls for service, other priority calls that are out there. But to your point, we are with other federal law enforcement agencies. We are not riding with ICE units. There are teams that do have ICE on them. MPD is not a part of those teams.
“So, kind of as you point out, I mean, there are a few examples that have, you know, kind of made their rounds on social media, but there’s not a large number of incidents that are out there,” Carroll said.
Acting Chief Carroll on community concerns
Community activists raise concerns about some of Carroll’s interactions with groups like the Proud Boys. April Goggans of Black Lives Matter recently told the Washington Informer about her concerns, particularly with actions she’s seen Carroll lead at some demonstrations where there have been things like kettling of large groups of protesters.
“It is not about merit, community trust or accountability,” she said. “It is about loyalty. Immediate, unquestioning loyalty to the police state and to political power, even when that loyalty requires suppressing dissent, violating constitutional rights or protecting misconduct.”
In one video, Carroll is seen with Proud Boys members when a scuffle ensued and he and other police officers broke it up. The video then shows Carroll rendering aid to a Proud Boys member who may have been sprayed in the face.
“So let me be clear, there’s no association between me and any Proud Boy group or any other sort of diversive [sic] group in the community,” Carroll said. “Over the past almost 10 years, I’ve had the opportunity to oversee our Special Operations Division and our Homeland Security Bureau, and as part of that, there’s a variety of groups that come here to the District of Columbia for a myriad of reasons. And with that, the Metropolitan Police Department’s role is to facilitate peaceful First Amendment activity, regardless of the groups that are there for whatever their message or purpose is.
“So during that time period, there’s been a variety of groups from various opposing viewpoints and sides, and regardless, we’re agnostic to what the issue is,” he said. “Therefore, they have the right to peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights. If they don’t peacefully exercise, whether there’s violence, then we’re going to take police action. We’re going to make arrests.”
In the Proud Boys video in question, Carroll said the person he was seen grabbing was arrested.
Executive Director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia Monica Hopkins released a statement raising concerns, saying Carroll has been part of actions that raised similar concerns about the possibility of police violating civil rights of protesters when he was at the helm of the units monitoring them.
“D.C. deservers a police chief who will follow the law and respect the constitutional rights of District residents,” Hopkins’ statement said. “The appointment of Jeffery Carroll as interim chief raises serious questions about his approach to policing at a moment when D.C. has seen an increase in public protests.”
“I’d say my role as chief of police is going to make sure that we continue to peacefully let folks exercise their First Amendment rights and show no favor to any group that’s out there,” Carroll said. “You know, our goal here is, this is the nation’s capital. People come here to protest; they come here to demonstrate. We’re going to facilitate that, as we have in the past.
“We’re known for how we handle large-scale demonstrations, how we handle special events, the multitude of things that we handle here, and how we do it very professionally,” he said. “And I’m proud of the overall interactions of the Metropolitan Police Department.”
Carroll said he’d like to serve as chief for the long term.
“This is the most unique police department in the world,” he said. “The things that we get to do here with the federal government, with Congress, with the community, the special events, the parades, the Caps, the Stanley Cup, the Nats winning the World Series, all those things are great, and you can do that nowhere else but here in the nation’s capital.”
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